To be fair, if we’re going back that far, they also dealt with certain issues with diamorphine and self-care devices, so maybe it isn’t all bad.
The hospital I work for is still not 100% recovered from the last time. I am trying to be optimistic but I’m also brushing up on those contingency plans we had to set up a field hospital in the stadium…
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Remember your Pandemic Procedure.
12 toilet rolls per person in the household will last a month under pressure, or two at a stretch. Don’t panic-buy, just grab two large bulk packs a week until you hit the quota and keep it there.
Buy antiseptic hand-wash and make sure it is real hand-wash, not just soap. You’ll need both, but one is going to be a lot more useful than the other. Likewise, eucalyptus-based products are potently anti-bacterial and can serve in a pinch but be aware, this stuff is strong and can burn sensitive skin, especially the young and the elderly. Set up a pump by the front door and another in the kitchen by the fridge.
Every time you touch the door-handles, train yourself to take a pump of antiseptic hand-wash and clean your hands, the second most common cause of transmission is communal objects, and you’d be surprised how often a person will touch a door-knob or handle throughout the day when stuck at home.
Buy bags of rice and a rice-cooker if you don’t already have it. Store the rice in a sealable container, even in the bag. A metric cup of rice, properly steamed, can produce enough bulk for two people to eat and feel full at the end, and adding leafy greens, canned vegetables and small amounts of meat and/or stock adds necessary proteins and fats. If kept cool, sealed up and in the dark, most rice will last for months, easily, and it is a good source of fibre, easily digestible and a heart-healthy food if cooked right. It’ll also clear out the pipes on the way out as a silver lining to the situation.
Buy face-masks, the re-useable kind if you can. Have a couple of packs of disposables on hand for unexpected surprises or to hand out to people who are caught short.
Canned food. Vegetables, soup, spaghetti, powdered milk, instant potato mash, they’ll all keep forever and if you combine them with the rice, you can stretch out the food supplies for quite a long time. Canned spam is expensive but a good source of salt and protein in a pinch if you can’t get out to the butcher or the deli for the weekly meat’n’greet.
If you must have sweets, get boiled lollies instead as they’ll last forever so long as they’re kept cool and out of the sunlight, and you’ll have to suck them to get the sugar, rather than just chew, eat, swallow and need another hit for the feel-good brain-chemicals.
Always have multiple packs of nurofen, panadol, aspirin, sanitary supplies, shaving razors, band-aids etc. If and when panic buying starts, you want to make sure you will not be caught short.
Clean your filters on any AirCon devices and make sure, if the model can survive it, soak any cloth or filters in a strong bleach mix to kill any fungal or insect hitch-hikers. One of my old co-workers just ended up hospitalized because her husband pulled out the water-cooled fan out of storage, didn’t clean it, just filled it with water and turned it on. The lady, her husband, her mother-in-law and both children ended up in hospital with pneumonia and viral infections in their lungs, throat and sinuses because of the mold in the water-pipes becoming aerosolized in the water and coating everything in the house, including them, and now that it was in a warm, dark and humid environment, started colonizing like crazy.
The last thing you need is lung issues in a post-Covid world, especially when we’re gearing up for Covid 2 : Brain Worm Boogaloo courtesy of another dementia-riddled old fart who has more money than functional brain-cells.
Get your shots now if you can. Cold & flu, basic health, whatever, if you can, get 'em, you don’t want to be crammed in cheek-to-jowl with people who’d rather die than wear a mask and cough like they’re back in kindergarten.
Get in the habit of drinking tea because it not only boils the water which is a bonus during a pandemic because I’ve seen your road, bridge and water infrastructure pop up too many times on the news, Americans, but most teas have health benefits to them, albeit on the small scale. Hydrate and get some other benefits specific to unique types of tea. Green tea can lower hunger and most teas contain elements that help improve heart health. Black tea is known to help with cardiovascular issues and arthritis, and some herbal teas are specifically blended to aid with digestion, fever and the common cold.
There’s more, but I gotta go feed the cats before they eat me from the toes up.
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Speaking of Covid 2… The first human death from Bird Flu happened on Monday. So, yeah.
I need to buy a rice cooker.
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I want everyone to know when I get up in the cold, dark and freezing my dog stays in bed and actually moves into the warm spot I left lmao. He only gets up when I take my bag downstairs because he knows it’s potty and snack time lmao. His breed is food motivated but in the mornings he’s sleep motivated lmao. So stinkin cute 
Anyway I’ve been stuffed up with a mild scratchy throat but I’m still going in office cuz I don’t want to get fired 
we cooked when bird flu takes off.
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I think I must have spoiled my last dog. I’d get up, take her out for wees and then take her back to bed, let her take the warm spot and the pillow, cover her with the blankets and then go to work. In her defence, she was old and needed all the help she could get to maintain warmth in the early mornings, but I’d come home and she’d have gotten back into the bed several times during the day and would play-growl at me every time I tried to get her out for brushing or food or to go for a walk.
Everyday was Monday for Gracie.
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Yes… yes… the brain worms are your friends.
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This is a mood, I completely understand.
I feel Gracie and I shared this trait. I’m currently freezing.
Gracie, you, me, Lily our dog, and our older void kittie. Lily moved into my divet and put her head on my pillow! Then the Void appeared and slapped the crap out her, and she went back to the foot of the bed. The Void the claimed my spot.
You do not mess with the Void.
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Being a cat rescuer, I have 5 cats of my own. Every morning, I wake up to two always loyally at my side: One is my old lady kitty who is now deaf taking up 90% of my pillow and the other is one I rescued from a flooded basement window well as a kitten curled up directly on my feet.
It’s a great way to wake up and start the day.
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I hope the Void is a black kitty with big eyes.
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The Void, aka The Kitten, Is a small (5 pound), 9 year old black kitty with green eyes that have a slight blue tone at the pupils. She is a brat.
She was rescued by a landscape crew at the last university I worked for. Her parents were feral residents of the campus and she and her little mates were plucked from a dumpster they had gotten trapped. I hate the university, but I will say that landscape and pest control were fantastic about rescuing, rehoming, and getting vet care for any critters they found. From wild animals to bees. One of the pest control people knew a bee keeper, and he would call him out to rescue hives instead of killing them.
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We are currently stilk fostering 3 kittens (small cats now) on top of our 3 family cats. I have a feeling the kittens are here to stay… >.<
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lol, that’s how it starts. Best of luck to you, do your best not to foster fail. 
Awww, I already love her.
My favorite rescue was a tiny kitten who started meowing at my door early one morning. Tiny little guy - looked less than 4 months old. Took him to the vet. He was almost a year old. Grew into the most gigantic boi you can imagine. He was a tabby who looked very similar to a Maine C (can’t post that second word apparently) and he talked constantly. He was so chill.
The two I have now are much less chill, but I expect them to grow out of it <3 The fact that the catahoula is tolerating them is amazing. I expected World War III.
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My wife loves teh kitties. And I love her more than myself. …I am hugely allergic, btw.
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Oh, you’re a good partner. Cat allergies are no joke.
I vacuum more obsessively than most (robot vacuum runs 1x a day, I vacuum manually every 3-4 days or so) and I brush/groom all my kitties and fosters regularly, but cat dander is still omnipresent and my allergic friends can always detect it.
Well, it’s either that or most fluffy cat uncannily goes straight to them and hops in their lap when they visit. I recently shaved her down with a 6mm cat grooming blade and it barely made a dent in her insanely long fur. I swear that she alone is responsible for all the shedding in this house.
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I have always been a critter person, but cats are a particular favorite. My father believed I was a cat in former life. Did not know, until a couple of years ago, that I am HIGHLY allergic to cats and dogs. Apparently for some people if you are in constant contact with “the allergen” your immune system suppresses the response. When I am around a new cat, I have a horrible 2 weeks adjustment to them.
Currently, we only have the two kitties and dog. (all rescues) We are over the pet limit at the appartment. But so is everyone with pets here. But the cats don’t get along. More precisesly, The Void does not get along with the other cat, who out weighs her by 10 pounds. The Void always gets her way.
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All jokes aside, I literally do cat coaching (usually for my adopters) to help their kitties get along, or at least reach the threshold of “frenemies.” My most recent case was Gordo, the big sweet orange dumb dumb I trapped late last year, and helping him adjust to not only indoor life but also his new roommate, a beagle. The beagle was cat friendly but TOO friendly, so we had to not only work with Gordo as a former outdoor cat to learn to live with a doggo but also teach his new beagle BFF to not overwhelm him with love and kisses. Today, we got the confirmation that Gordo accepts her friendship and the beagle has calmed down significantly after some careful training.
Anyway, all that to say that I have “professional” tips if you’re in need. I use the word in quotes because it’s always been an unpaid side gig, like the Millennial version of Jackson Galaxy but without the beard and guitar case full of cat toys.
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